


something seems to be alive

by VerdantMoth



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Cheek Kisses, Platonic Kisses, Post Infinity Wars, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-09-27
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:00:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26684050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VerdantMoth/pseuds/VerdantMoth
Summary: Space is home. Nebula was born into this, the cold, unfeeling blackness. Born into the pinprick light blinking out, guiding further and further from home.The metal walls, the human-built cage, is new, but familiar.The human is less familiar. And cranky.The captain’s ghost might’ve been human once, partly. But he’s become the most familiar thing to her in this barren, false air.Thanks, doll. Real nice complement there. Steve’ll get a real hoot about that one.The captain’s ghost talks a lot, for a dead assassin.
Relationships: Background Tony Stark/Stever Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes & Nebula, Nebula & Tony Stark
Kudos: 9
Collections: Kisses Bingo





	something seems to be alive

Space is…

Space is home. Nebula was born into this, the cold, unfeeling blackness. Born into the pinprick light blinking out, guiding further and further from home. 

The metal walls, the human-built cage, is new, but familiar. 

The human is less familiar. And cranky.

The captain’s ghost might’ve been human once, partly. But he’s become the most familiar thing to her in this barren, false air. 

_Thanks, doll. Real nice complement there. Steve’ll get a real hoot about that one_.

The captain’s ghost talks a lot, for a dead assassin.

“Eat,” Nebula commands. 

_He needs more._

“This is all we have,” Nebula grunts. 

The bars are… chalkey. Less than ideal. They are crumbs. Calorie and protein dense. Lacking most other vitamins.

There are plenty. 

Thank Thanos she does not need much to fuel her body.

 _He needs more_.

Tony looks at her with sunken, dark eyes. “Not hungry.”

Nebula cocks her head and lets her eyes glow a little. She looks him up and down, frowning. “You need more.”

Tony bites his teeth at her, but it’s a weak motion. Mocking, self mocking. “Is that you or your ghost?”

Nebula pushes the chalk-protein at him. “Please do not expect me to feed you. It would hurt.”

_Tell him no Cap._

“The Captain will be disappointed if I let you wither away. He might revoke my pardon.”

“Low,” Tony snarls. But he opens the cellophane packet and grudgingly nibbles at a corner. “Is he scheduled to call?”

_He will. He is particularly impatient today._

“He will,” Nebula relays. 

Tony eyes her again, but he nods, takes another small bite. 

-

[Tony. Are you hearing these messages? Receiving them? FRIDAY says the relay time is pretty quick. You should get them within a few days of sending.]

Tony watches, and his dark, sunken eyes go liquid.

[I miss you. I miss you so much.]

Should she watch this? Tony asks her to stay.

 _So stay_.

[I wish… God, Tony. So many things. I know…]

_He doesn’t._

“Go away,” Nebula says to the air. 

_Tony needs you here. You need me here._

[Come home, so I can apologize to you properly. Kay? Come home because]

Steve’s voice cracks.

 _Okay, now you should leave_.

The sobs echo throughout the ship. Nebula cannot tell if they are the video, or if they are the inventor. 

-

“Goal!” Tony croaks. He lifts his hands, and they shake at his shoulders. They fall with heavy thuds. The paper triangle stays on the ship’s floor behind him.

Nebula frowns. “Eat.” 

She commands him, and he does not argue. He chokes down the chalk-protein. 

_Drink_.

But there is nothing.

“Tell me about your captain,” Nebula says. She does not add, tell me about the captain’s ghost.

“Steve’s the worst,” Tony says with a small smile. “And he’s going to bring us home.”

_Your home is gone. Remind him._

“He says he will bring you home, but we are still here,” Nebula says softly. 

Tony shakes his head. “Steve’s a bitch, but when he really believes in something…”

 _Even the wrong thing?_ _  
_ “Even the wrong thing?” Nebula repeats. She also wants to know.

“Tell the ghost to fuck off, Murdermut,” Tony growls.

Nebula blinks, unconcerned. “You used to call him Murderbot. He misses that."

Tony shakes a little more, and Nebula rises. There are blankets somewhere. Threadbare and ice damp, but more than what he’s wearing. 

“Do you still love the Captain?” She asks, once she’s swaddled him up as best she can. His lips are still blue, the strange red undertones of his human fading. She curls beside him and hopes the electricity in her warms him. 

Tony kisses her cheek. “Murdermut, I loved him even when he left me to die.”

_You never told him._

That's… not her place to speak of. 

-

“That star,” Nebula muses. 

_It’s a dang star, sweetling._

“It’s a star,” Tony sighs without opening his eyes.

Nebula bumps his knees beneath the table and Tony diligently places chalk-protein into his mouth. He doesn’t chew, but she knows from unfortunate experience it will dissolve in his mouth. 

“It’s _new,_ ” she stresses. 

The ghost, the captain’s ghost goes silent over her shoulder. 

“It’s,” she pauses. She misses the strange voice.

_It’s new! It’s fucking new! Babe! BABE! Cap is going to get you home._

Can cap? She thinks.

_Tincan there is the scientist, sweetling._

“Tony, it’s a _new star_ ,” she says. “We can use it. Plot our way home.”

Tony nods at her, but his eyes are glossy. He is…

He is bone. Not the metal alloys that stand her up, not the carefully structured spine that allows her to bend backwards. To twist herself into nothing.

He is the bone she has snapped under her heel, the marrow she has scattered in the rubble of planets long gone.

 _He needs you_. _Remind him of home_.

Nebula has never known a home that wasn’t a vast, cold, empty space ready to squeeze the life out.

-

[Honey, Tony. It’s been-]

Tony gasps a little, and Nebula really cannot tell if it's the message, or the fading air. 

[I know you’re out there. I feel you.]

 _I feel you, too, sweetling._

“You’re a ghost,” Nebula says. She says it to both of them.

[I know I’m begging, but we need you. I need you, yeah, but _we_ need you. The team, the survivors,]

_We all survive. One way or another. I survive, anyway._

“You’re a ghost in a stone,” Nebula grunts.

Tony’s head lifts up, swivels slowly and creakily towards her. “Wait. _Wait_ , Murdermut. You mean,” he pauses, sucks in a wet breath. “Cap’s ghost!’

Nebula stares after him blandly. 

Tony is feverish. Literally, yeah, but he starts pressing buttons, twisting wires. “Solder this, Murdermut.”

SHe obliges, feeds him. Keeps him warm. 

-

[Tony?]

“Yeah, yeah Cap, is that- Can you?”

[Tony! How- Where-]

“There’s no time, Captain,” Nebula cuts in. “Tincan, tell him the _truth_.” 

_The truth beyond the solution?_

“Shut up, “ Nebula snaps. 

“Me?” Tony asks.

[Me?]

_You don’t know what you think._

“Now you tell me?” Nebula demand. 

_You didn’t ask, sweetling._

“What don’t we know?” 

“Yeah,” Tony echoes.

[Yeah…]

_The star is new. Both in your surroundings and in time._

“Tony,” Nebula asks. “Can that star be new?”

“It looks old,’ Tony hesitates. 

[Time travel! That’s what-]

“But, we don’t know-”

 _Stones_.

“Can you get us home, Tony?”

[We have ideas, but we need you to clean them]

“Send me what you have, Cap.”

 _You’re going home_.

“You won’t be there,” Nebula whispers.

 _You never know_.

“You wouldn’t remember me, if you were,” Nebula gasps.

_You Never Know._

-

They don’t know, even know. Even with the powers of the female captain. Even with the boost that carries the ship through the galaxy and universe. 

The earth slowly spins into view.

“I’m afraid,” Nebula admits. 

“Me too,” Tony rattles out.

_Me too. Gonna be quiet, sweetling. Don’t worry though._

“Tell me about them,” Nebula asks. 

“About the Captain and his… ‘ghost’?” Tony chuckles. 

“Yes,” Nebula admits, because the game is almost over. No point hiding now.

“Bucky was…” Tony pauses. “I didn’t get to know him much,” he confesses. “He was a hero in his own rights. A veteran. From the way history talks, a scientist. From the way Steve talks, a rascal.”

“Was he a robot?” Nebula demands quietly.

Tony laughs again, a brittle noise in his chest. “No, no he wasn’t.”

Nebula frowns.

 _Told you_.

“Was he good?”

Tony watches her for a long time. Traces the rusted parts of her, the gore they never quite managed to scrape from her edges. 

[Are any of us?]

Tony glances at the screen. “Are any of us?” He says again, quietly. 

-

New York rattles into view, all red and orange and bloody. 

Cap stands there, eyes bright and Tony-

“Be gentle,” Nebula tells him. “Forgive.”

Tony eyes her. “Can I yell at him first?”

She offers him a small smile. Presents him with a knife. “Absolutely.”

She looks, but there’s no one by the Captain’s side. There’s an army behind him. A team ready to undo what Thanos has done. But there is no one to his left.

_Sorry, sweetling, but the plan will work. It has too._

“The plan will work,” Tony tells Steve.

“It has to,” Steve responds.

“It _must,_ ” Nebula agrees. It must.


End file.
